Organizers say beer petition close; continue taking signatures

Petition organizers said Monday they have collected roughly 3000 signatures requesting the county board of supervisors to put the question of legalized beer sales on the ballot for voters to decide in conjunction with the Nov. 3 general election later this year.
A petition containing over 1500 validated signatures asking for a vote on legalized liquor sales was accepted by the board at its Aug. 3 meeting last week. For liquor to appear on the ballot at least 1500 signatures or 20% of the qualified voters, whichever is lower, is required
The beer petition, however, requires 20% of the qualified voters in the county to sign. The number varies daily, according to the circuit clerk, depending on new registrants and voters purged by election commissioners. Circuit Clerk Vernon Alford said he believes the number is in the area of something over 2000.
While organizers feel they have the required signatures, they will not know until the signatures are validated. The validated petitions are to make sure the signers are registered voters in the county, that names are not duplicated, etc.
“We will continue to gather signatures until we reach the validated 20% threshold we need to ask for the vote,” a spokesman said.